Allandale is a historic house in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It was built by prominent brewer Enoch Turner in 1856 at on Sherbourne St just north of Dundas. When it was built this was the fringe of the town, and the house is rural in appearance with a style common to rural Ontario in this period. The house was named after William Allan

William Allan (banker)

William Allan JP was a Canadian banker, businessman and politician.Allan was born at Moss, near Huntly, Scotland around 1770. He came to Canada around 1787 to work with Forsyth, Richardson and Company and settled at Niagara a year later. In 1795, he moved to York...

, who had owned the large Moss Park estate upon which the house was built.

In the years after the house was built the Sherbourne/Jarvis area became home to the city's elite, and Allandale was dwarfed by a series of mansions in the area. The area changed again dramatically in the 20th century, becoming one of the poorest in Toronto home to a working class and transient population with the old houses left in poor condition. One of its last occupants was I.F. Hellmuth

I.F. Hellmuth

Isidore Frederick Hellmuth was the first champion of what became the Canadian National Tennis Championship, now known as the Canadian Open or the Rogers Cup. He was also a three-time runner-up as well as one-time doubles champion....

, who founded the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club

Toronto Lawn Tennis Club

The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club hosted the first ever National Tennis Championship of Canada and has hosted 2 Davis Cup ties.Established in 1874 by I.F...

 in 1874, and in 1881 won the first Rogers Cup. He died there in 1944. In the 1960s Allandale was slated for demolition, as it and its neighbours were to be replaced with a public housing project, similar to the nearby Moss Park. Public protests halted the demolition in 1973. Instead a new form of public housing was tried by architects Jack Diamond

Jack Diamond (architect)

A.J. "Jack" Diamond, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian architect.Born in Piet Retief, South Africa, he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Cape Town in 1956. He received a Master of Arts degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University in 1958...

 and Barton Myers

Barton Myers

Barton Myers, FAIA is an American and Canadian architect and president of Barton Myers Associates, Inc. in Los Angeles, California....

. The acclaimed Sherbourne Lanes project integrated Allandale with several neighbouring Victorian structures and modern infills to preserve the character of the neighbourhood while a creating modern public housing complex.